ABSTRACT
Every 15 seconds someone suffers a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the United States. TBI causes more deaths in males <35 years old than all other diseases combined, and it is estimated that 2% of the U.S. population lives with TBI-associated disability. Despite extensive research and success in animal studies, successful drug therapies have proved elusive in clinical trials.1 Instead, TBI care focuses on the early identification and removal of mass lesions and on the detection, prevention, and management of secondary brain insults that adversely affect outcome (e.g., hypotension, hypoxia, seizures, elevated intracranial pressure). TBI is a heterogeneous disease in cause, pathology, severity, and prognosis. Consequently, TBI care depends in large part on careful and repeated assessment of clinical and laboratory findings, imaging studies, and bedside physiological data.
